Rolling Thunder Cyclocross Race November 1st and 2nd

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Another wonderful night at Fort Missoula. As you can see from the pictures, the weather was gloomy. It didn't stop Phil from grabbing is second win of the series. Phil powered away from Dave and Toby and never looked back. It seems like when Phil is on he's almost unbeatable. Toby came in an impressive second, his best result of the series. Dave and Toby battled all race until on the last lap Dave had miscue on the barriers and Toby took advantage. Dave continued his consistent racing, which could bring him the series title in the end. Beyond that Bill took fourth continuing his consistency as well. Both Bill and Brink passed a fading Doug after his frame cracked(Dale and his unlucky mechanicals). After that came the rest of us. I rode with Rankin from Northern Rockies and Troy from Montana Velo, but eventually got dropped from that group and was picked up by Mike. Mike and myself ended up staying together for the last couple laps. It ended up finishing Rankin, Troy, myself, Mike, and Elliot(who was gaining on us in the latter stages of the race). Bob Presta and Erik Digby were behind Elliot, but hung tough. In the B's a Five Valley man went from the gun and took the victory. Bookwalter was second on a mountain bike and Murphy rounded out the podium. Another great week at the Fort. Thanks to Tamara for officiating!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Yesterday was the first stop in the Montana Cyclocross Series, Butte. The course had a nasty run up, one barrier section, and a sand pit. It was a short course with laps coming in around 3-4 minutes. I was impressed with the turnout. The A's were short Missoullians. Doug, Bill Martin, Dave, and myself lined up to represent Zoo Town. Doug and Dave both DNFed, while Bill had a great race....ending up somewhere between 5th and 7th I think. The race started off fast. John Curry, Jeff Proctor, and Frank Gonzalez immediately strung out the field. I was riding at the tail end with a pack of guys and Doug (he was tired from his half marathon the day before). Up ahead I could see no real groups forming. Soon, almost everyone was on there own. Eventually John Curry powered away from the rest and took the victory. He will be tough to beat at Rolling Thunder. Frank G. and Jeff P. rounded out the top 3 (I think). The GAS team from Bozeman continued their impressive Montana performances this year. I think they had 4 or 5 guys in the top 10. Also, Ben Kneller the Montana.....soon to be pro racer made an appearance. Me and my new Ridley were having a heck of time getting to know eachother. My rear derailuer was skipping all over the place, then I flatted. I put on my spare and continued to push around the course in last place. It was a fun race, and I was glad to finish.

The Men's B race looked like a lot of fun. Erik Digby pushed the tempo early on until a nice sized group formed at the front. Included in the group was Ben Horan a local up and comer in the Missoula cross scene. Ben rode smart and finished third after a last lap attack on the run up. The winne of the B's was a guy from Bozeman that I've never seen before.

This Wednesday should be another great race. Dave is setting up the course (should be technical).